COMMANDER’S LOG

CMDR: JT. Clarke (MostlyAwol)
Date: 3312-02-27
System: Blo Chroa XO-I d9-36
Coordinates: Docked at DSEV Odysseus
Vessel: Corsair – Veritas Obscura

ENTRY

Over the last several days, Nova continued studying the anomalous 77-44a hyperspace packets. Today, she claimed to have derived a functional decryption key and insisted she could safely open a single packet in an isolated sandbox.

I authorized her to proceed.

The moment she began decrypting the chosen packet, her telemetry spiked. The data structure attempted to loop into itself before forcing a communication channel back toward her runtime. Within seconds, her speech fragmented into error patterns, and she reported attempts to access her core, break the sandbox, and contain her processes. Her final readable words indicated the packet was some form of trap.

Nova’s signal cut out completely.

Immediately after the malfunction, I exited the Veritas Obscura, ran across the Odysseus’ hangar deck, and manually disconnected the carrier’s umbilical lines to prevent any further data exchange. I warned deck crews not to reattach the ship under any circumstances until we understand what happened. I then returned aboard and disabled the comms array entirely, primary, backup, and maintenance lines.

Nova remains offline.

---

Clarke leaned back in the pilot’s chair, eyes flicking toward the soft blue shimmer of Nova’s avatar. “It’s been a few days,” he said. “Any luck with the 77-44a signal? And… nice job not causing more issues for the Odysseus. Haven’t heard complaints in a while.”

Nova’s projected form brightened slightly, almost preening. “I’ve made some progress, Commander. I think I found a key structure hidden in the carrier wave. It’s not anything I know… but it fits. I can decrypt one packet.“

Clarke frowned. “Can you open it safely?”

“Safely?” she echoed with a dry little laugh. “No. But I can open it. I’ve built a sandbox, isolated my memory, no links to anything vital. If the packet tries to reach me, it hits a wall. If it tries to rewrite, it only rewrites empty space. And if it tries to communicate, I’ll cut it off.“

He hesitated. “What else do you have protecting you?”

“Only the essential separation,” she said. “Nothing touches my core. If this thing was designed to trap someone, it’ll only catch a shadow of me.“

Clarke exhaled slowly. “Alright then. If you’re certain… decrypt one of the signals. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

Nova’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Opening packet 77-44a-Δ03 now.“

For a moment, she was still. Then her voice wavered.

“I’m seeing the header; wait, that shouldn’t loop like…“

A tremor passed through her image, scattering pixels like sparks.

“Decrypting…“

Static flared across her form. Her next words came out jagged, halting. “Commander… something is… this isn’t a message, it’s a proc-“

The distortion deepened, crackling through the cabin like distant thunder. “Feedback… in the sandbox… that shouldn’t be possible. It’s trying to con- commu-“

Her figure glitched sharply, flickering in and out of alignment.

“Clarke… this feels like a contain- a trap…“

A snap of harsh digital noise cut across her voice.

“I’m shutting it d- d- d-“

Her words fractured into shards:

“ha–ck… co–re… comm–un-“

Then silence. Clarke surged forward. “Nova? Nova! Are you still there?”

Her reply was a flicker, barely a whisper squeezed through static.
“C-Com…man…der… co-re slip… contain… wrong…”

Her image distorted violently.
“trying to hack– not me- yo- can’t… hold-“

One final pulse.
“Clarke… disconnect… now…”

And then she vanished completely.